


The Backup Plan

by Morvidra



Category: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Crossover, Dogs being dogs, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:09:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13764864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morvidra/pseuds/Morvidra
Summary: A summons. A dire plot. A mysterious book.It's as well to have a plan in reserve.





	The Backup Plan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ryfkah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryfkah/gifts).



> Dear ryfkah, all I can say is: you asked for this. I hope you like it.

Considering that mere months ago she had been so respectably brought up that she couldn’t do _anything_ , Charmain felt quite proud that she was now able to cook an edible supper.

(Admittedly, this meant stirring the pot while quite firmly engrossed in the book she held in her other hand. Learning did not necessarily mean changing.)

So she felt justified in being furious when the door burst open to reveal a summons from the Palace – to attend _instantly_ , if you please – interrupting both the cooking and the chapter. The fact that the messenger was Peter just made it all the more irritating.

She went anyway. One did not refuse the command of one’s monarch – not, at any rate, if one was in line to become the next Royal Wizard – and in any case, she was very fond of the King and Princess Hilda. She was less fond of Peter, but he was in the nature of a necessary evil, and she could stand him much better since he wasn’t around _all_ the time. 

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Charming,” Princess Hilda greeted her arrival at the palace. Charmain had used the direct route through Great Uncle William’s house, which she was getting quite practiced at navigating. (Peter had been forbidden to use it until his magic training was a little more advanced. To Charmain’s certain knowledge, he broke this rule about once a week.)

Charmain was making rapid inroads into a large plate of Jamal’s crispy snacks. Small noises from under the table indicated that Waif had been provided with a bowl of her favourite squid.

“I do apologise for the lateness of the hour, but we have received most disturbing news,” Princess Hilda said. She nodded regally at the woman who sat beside her wearing travel-marked robes. “My dear friend Vashti, who arrived this afternoon quite unexpectedly – ”

“I had not much warning,” Vashti interrupted. Charmain was impressed – not many people could get away with interrupting Princess Hilda. “There was no time to send word.”

“Quite,” Princess Hilda agreed. “Vashti has come, through great hardship and in the utmost secrecy, to ask for our help. Or rather, I should say, for your help.”

“My help?” Charmain said, startled. She had just bitten into another snack, so it came out slightly muffled. “I beg your pardon, your highness, but are you sure you don’t need Great Uncle William instead of me?”

“Indeed not,” Vashti answered before the princess could. “Hilda informs me that you are the current holder of _The Boke of Palimpsest_?”

“Well… yes, but I don’t really know how to use it very well,” Charmin sputtered. “I mean, I can do spells out of it and they do work, but – ”

“I am given to understand by our dear Wizard Norland that the ability to read _The Boke of Palimpsest_ is a signal that the book has adopted you,” Princess Hilda said calmly. “And that being adopted by such a book is not so much a matter of learning to use it, as it is of learning to _work_ with it. Wizard Norland has had extremely encouraging reports of your progress in this matter.”

_Oh has he_ , Charmain thought darkly.

“Added to this, as High Norland’s Elfgift Guardian and our future Royal Wizard, it will do you a great deal of good to have some practice in how to protect a country.”

Waif stuck her nose out from under the table, blinking. Charmain felt rather like blinking herself. “Er… which country?”

“My country,” Vashti answered. “You would not have heard of it, for it is far from here, but it is ruled at present by my former husband.” She paused. “And by his new queen, who is in deadly peril.

“Allow me to explain a little more, Miss Charming,” Vashti said. (Charmain would not have dreamed of stopping her.) “My marriage dissolved several years ago, and I was cast from the palace in disgrace. As I stood on the steps despairing, conceive my astonishment when a djinn swooped from the sky and carried me off a castle in the sky to be the bride of his brother.”

Charmain was starting to feel as though she had wandered into an adventure story. Vashti was a superb storyteller, bringing action and emotion alive with her beautiful, expressive eyes and hands.

“In that castle also were many other ladies of high and noble birth,” Vashti continued, “And among them was Princess Hilda.”

“The djinn’s brother was collecting princesses,” Princess Hilda added.

“There were perhaps thirty of us by the time we were saved, and the djinn’s brother was banished to a far distant world,” Vashti agreed. But there had been no way of magically returning the princesses after their adventures, and so Ambassadors Extraordinary had been appointed to return them to their own countries.

“I told them there was no point trying to establish diplomatic relations with mine,” Vashti said dryly. Instead she had travelled to the lands of all the other princesses, and had eventually returned home alone, in disguise.

The king had remarried. Vashti had been unsurprised. But, through her palace sources, she had been horrified to learn that the king’s vizier had hatched an evil plot, and persuaded the king to order the death of every Jewish person in the kingdom.

“And, although the king does not know it, that number includes his queen.”

Vashti spread her hands. “We have laid our plans. The queen has taken the greatest risk upon herself, for she must speak directly to the king. If all goes well, we will change the king’s mind. But if we fail, _The Boke of Palimpsest_ contains a protective spell, strong enough to let all escape.”

Charmain was already on her feet. “Look after her while I get the _Boke_ ,” she called. “I’ll be fifteen minutes!”

Vashti looked at Princess Hilda. “Was she talking to you, or the dog?”

Waif trotted over to sit at Vashti’s feet, wuffing gently.

“The dog,” Hilda replied. “Definitely the dog.”


End file.
